Link to Podcast - http://www.blubrry.com/engaging/342296/show-219-10-golden-rules-of-b2b-social-media-marketing-pt1/
Anna Farmery: Hi, my name is Anna Farmery and it’s a warm welcome to “The Engaging Brand” parts of blubrry community. And this podcast is dedicated to helping you motivate, inspire, and engage people at work. And I interview people from all areas of life, to give you insights that will help you achieve your full potential. And also help you develop the potential of others.
It’s a warm welcome to show 219 of The Engaging Brand. And today, I’m delighted to say that, I’m speaking to Jay Berkowitz. Jay is somebody that I’ve listened to for a long time. I love his show “Ten Golden Rules Internet Marketing”. Check it out if you haven’t. It really is a fabulous show. And I invited Jay on because we’d had a question-in from Peter, one of our listeners, who said, “Look, I really understand social media in relation to business to consumer. But I don’t know whether I really understand how it can work for business to business”. So, that’s what we’re exploring tonight. And to be honest, during the conversation, it actually made me think whether we actually need this differentiation between business to consumer and business to business, because they are so interlinked. And I’ll put over on the blog post an article that I did on the site about exploring that idea, just business to business really exist as a marketing concept? I’ll also post the second part of the show tomorrow, so that you don’t have the normal wait between the shows, because these shows really do go together in that sense. But I also – I’m very conscious of the fact that I don’t like to go over the 25 to 30 minute-mark. So, I’ll break it into two shows and then, hopefully that helps anybody who listens to it during that commute. But first, a quick shout out for our sponsor, GoToMeeting. GoToMeeting is a fabulous product and one that – do you know I honestly don’t think that I can run business without – it allows me to hold meetings online and cuts down on travel. And now people can also use GoToMeeting if they’re on a Mac, previously it was PC. And also now, the voice of IP technology is much better. If you’re looking for a way of cutting down those costs, getting those meetings online, allowing people to see what’s on your computer screen, then check it out. It really is a fabulous product. And better than that, if you go to http://www.gotomeeting.com/podcast, you can sign up, wait for it for a free trial for 30 days, where you can have unlimited meetings, and I can guarantee if you start using the product, you’ll wonder what you did without it.
Well, it’s on to the first part of the show, with the wonderful, Jay Berkowitz. Well, Jay Berkowitz, welcome to “The Engaging Brand”!
Jay Berkowitz: Thanks, Anna, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Anna Farmery: Well, as you know, I am a big fan of your podcast, Ten Golden Rules of Marketing. And I need you, Jay. I absolutely – in fact, one of our listeners need you desperately, because I got a question-in and I’m not gonna mention his name, but he knows who he is because I don’t know whether he wants his name in this context. To say – and he said, “Look, I really get this social media kind of context, but I don’t get it when it’s business to business”. Can you explore, with someone, how you use social media for business to business? So, I didn’t think there was anybody better out there than yourself to discuss this concept with. If we just start off with a very general question, really, do you think social media is relevant to business to business?
Jay Berkowitz: Not only is it relevant, I think it’s critical. And we’re gonna talk about some examples today. Some of which you’ve explored previously, where social media is, you know, really if you’re not proactively doing things in social media and understanding what’s being said about you in the marketplace, it can cause the brand millions of dollars. So, not only is it important proactively to generate revenue and business opportunities. It’s critical from a customer service and just a reputation monitoring and reputation management standpoint to secure your business that you have.
Anna Farmery: But look, right, I can understand that in a business to consumer environment because, you know, people speak about customer service that they’ve actually individually received. But when you’re dealing with a business instead of a consumer, a business isn’t gonna talk about you, are they?
Jay Berkowitz: Absolutely, I mean, I think that people today use Twitter, for example, almost as a stream of consciousness, and a lot of – you know, people might say, so frustrated with so and so, they just can’t get their act together. And there’s definitely an immediate risk of that happening. And I think it’s happening all day, every day. If you’re that brand, I think you have – there’s an imperative that you’re monitoring what’s being said about you, and you’re trying to address those situations, whether it’s business to consumer or business to business.
Anna Farmery: So, can business to business, or other ways of actually making money on – through social media, Jay?
Jay Berkowitz: Absolutely, and as you know, I tried to sum it up in a list of ten, because we know, Ten Golden Rules, most of everything I do is in list of ten. And going back in business, I always thought that was a really good number for a company to focus on 10 priorities or 10 objectives, 10 projects. And, so you know, we developed 10 strategies for using social media for business, and using social media to make money. So, if you want to hop into those now, I’ll be happy to do that.
Anna Farmery: Yeah. But I’ve got my pen already.
Jay Berkowitz: Well, the first imperative for business is in social media, and it’s been true across the history of the internet is having great content. And there’s no substitution for having absolutely great content on your website, on your blog, even on every single Twitter post that you send out. And we’re seeing so many more companies now, twittering for business. And even a discussion in the last 24 hours, that Twitter’s gonna start charging businesses for business Twitter accounts. So, the imperative for great content is that if you have really interesting information on your website; if you have great insights on your blog; if every twitter post that you send is interesting with a valuable link and a valuable takeout on the news of the day, there’s a really dramatically increased likelihood that people are going to link to that content. They’re gonna re-tweet your twitters. They’re gonna subscribe to your blog or your newsletter. So, great content becomes the first and critical way that a business becomes relevant. And a business becomes relevant to other businesses and prospects that they might do business with. So, there’s really no substitution for, you know, really developing great insightful, valuable and in many cases, free content.
Anna Farmery: And in the business to business context, is the theory there then that even if you’re business to business, the other business that you’re trying to sell to are still made of individuals who are scouring the internet?
Jay Berkowitz: Well, for sure, I mean, a business is just comprised of people and people are very similar when it comes to social media. And I think, when it comes to interacting with the internet, you know, we all look for a lot of free content. We expect a lot of free information on a website. And I don’t think that when we use to go to a business meeting, we expect that, you know, a free consultation or a free, you know, a free educational seminar. But when we come to a website, we pretty much have an expectation that there is a free White Paper or a free webinar, where we can learn about the product. So, I think as individuals, we have this high expectation from the internet that we’re going to be able to derive information from the company from their website, and it might come in the format we want to take that content. We want to consume that content. You know, different people choose to consume content differently. Some people would be looking for that free video. Some people want to download a White paper and read about you. And that’s the only thing they would possibly do when they come to your website.
Anna Farmery: Yeah.
Go to Part 2 >>
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